Registration is open for TAPM’s Annual Seminar. This all-day event will take place over Zoom. We invite you to participate and learn from our expert speakers on topics about peacemaking.
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Pillars of Peacemaking: Exploring Key Professions in Dispute Resolution
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Friday, April 4, 2025, 8am-3pm Central Time (9am – 4pm Eastern Time)
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Join us for Pillars of Peacemaking, a full-day online seminar that dives into the essential roles of mediators, arbitrators, ombudsmen, facilitators, and conflict coaches, including the unique characteristics, responsibilities, and ethical considerations of each role.
We will delve into these distinct yet interconnected roles, examining how each contributes uniquely to resolving conflicts in various contexts. The presentation will also highlight the growing importance of community mediation and access to justice. Speakers include Ken Cloke, Clare Fowler, Murphy Funkhouser, Anne Sawyer, and Natalie C. Fleury!
This conference aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the dispute resolution field, empowering professionals at all stages of their careers to identify opportunities, enhance their skills, and navigate the interconnected nature of conflict management roles. Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner looking to expand your services or a newcomer exploring career options, this event offers valuable insights into the diverse and rewarding world of dispute resolution.
Mark your calendar and get ready for a day of growth, learning, and connection!
Seminar Agenda
8:00amCT: Opening Remarks
8:15-9:30am: Neutral to Notable: Building a Mediation Brand, with Murphy Funkhouser
9:45-10:45am: The Light-Hearted Mediator for the Heavy-Hearted Employee: Workplace Conflict Management, with Clare Fowler
11:00am – 12:00pm: The Role of Ombuds in Conflict Resolution, with Natalie Fleury
1:00-2:00pm: Facilitating Conversations that Transform Conflict, with Anne Sawyer
2:00-3:00pm: The Future of Mediation and the Frontiers of Conflict Resolution: Toward an Evolving Mediation Model, with Kenneth Cloke
This event has been approved for 5 hours of General CLE, 5 hours of General/Family/Ethics CME
***If you are having any trouble registering, email [email protected]***
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$125 to members; $200 for non-members. Students can attend for $50.00 with a registration code. Contact [email protected] for the code if you don’t already have one.
Log in to your TAPM account to access the member rate.
Not a TAPM member? JOIN NOW to take advantage of the TAPM rate! $100 annual TAPM Professional membership | $50 annual Non-profit Mediator/Student membership
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Event Descriptions and Speaker Bios:
Neutral to Notable: Create a Mediation Brand That Gets Noticed, with Murphy Funkhouser:
Turn neutrality into distinction with strategies that make your mediation brand memorable in the minds of your prospective clients.
Mediation isn’t just a service—it’s a business, and business success demands thinking like an entrepreneur. In this engaging talk, brand and marketing expert Murphy Funkhouser of BrandStage Consulting will inspire mediators to embrace the entrepreneurial mindset and use the power of branding science to succeed in a competitive marketplace.
Discover how to identify what makes your practice unique, craft emotionally compelling messages, and educate potential clients in ways that position you as the go-to professional in your field. You’ll leave with actionable insights and strategies to transform your mediation practice into a standout brand that attracts the clients you want. Get ready to put on your entrepreneur hat and make your business as remarkable as the solutions you provide.
Murphy Funkhouser Bio:
Murphy Funkhouser is a business, brand and marketing strategist, consultant and educator who has supported the creation or launch of over 500 brands in her 20-year career. She was the co-founder and owner of Kudzu Brands, based in Asheville, and now owns a private business and brand strategy firm, BrandStage Consulting. Her expertise includes creating, launching, and building brands and developing business and non-profit marketing strategies. Murphy has helped multiple mediators and litigators develop successful brands.
Murphy has taught business, branding and entrepreneurship at multiple higher education and business schools. She is a year-round teacher, coach and facilitator at the non-profit Mountain Bizworks in Asheville. She is a graduate of the Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Businesses program.
When she is not creating strategies that help businesses perform, Murphy is on the stage herself. Her understanding of the stage and the elements of a performance transfer to her understanding of business and branding. She knows how to tell a compelling story. She understands how to get an audience’s attention.
Her business and brand expertise combined with her experience as a performer make her the perfect business or brand strategist for any business or organization looking for creative and effective strategies to take center stage in the market.
Murphy is currently obtaining her Master’s Degree in Communications and Storytelling from East Tennessee State University.
The Light-Hearted Mediator for the Heavy-Hearted Employee, with Clare Fowler:
This session will dive deep into three of the most common behaviors, examining why people behave the way they do. Then we will look at how to work most effectively with these 3 behaviors, resolving and preventing future behaviors. This session, which draws on 10 years of research, will also examine trauma-informed practices and the psychology of conflict.
Clare Fowler Bio:
- International Woman of Peace Award, 2024
- Author of Rising Above Office Conflict: the light-hearted guide for the heavy-hearted employee
Dr. Clare Fowler received her Doctorate on designing dispute resolution systems for small businesses from Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education/ Organizational Leadership and her Master’s of Dispute Resolution from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University School of Law. Dr. Fowler also works as Managing Editor and with Caseload Manager at Mediate.com. She teaches at Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Department and University of Oregon. Clare mediates and trains, focusing on workplace disputes. Dr. Fowler’s dissertation was a phenomenological study of Workplace disputes. Her 2023 book, Rising Above Office Conflict, is a guidebook for HR directors dealing with high conflict behaviors.
Facilitating Conversations that Transform Conflict, with Anne Sawyer:
Are you a leader, consultant, or professional looking to elevate your impact? What if the key to unlocking growth isn’t avoiding conflict—but embracing it? Join me for an engaging webinar where I’ll share how mediation and facilitation have been transformative forces in my career. From boardrooms to consulting engagements, I’ve discovered that resolving conflict (mediation) and fostering collaboration (facilitation) are leadership superpowers.
In this session, you’ll learn:
- How mediation skills like active listening and reframing can supercharge your leadership.
- The role of facilitation in creating spaces where diverse voices thrive and innovation flourishes.
- Real-world examples of conflict turned into catalysts for organizational growth.
- Practical strategies you can apply immediately in your leadership journey.
Anne Sawyer Bio:
Anne Sawyer is a highly experienced mediator, facilitator, and conflict resolution consultant with over 20 years of experience guiding individuals and organizations through complex disputes. She holds leadership positions as Executive Director of 90 Minds Inc. and President of Kids Managing Conflict where she spearheads initiatives to empower youth through peer mediation and conflict resolution programs.
For more than a decade, Anne has facilitated dialogues with Days of Dialogue and the Institute for Nonviolence Los Angeles, moderating impactful conversations on critical issues such as civic engagement, climate change, social and racial justice, racism, policing, and violence. Her expertise extends to training other facilitators and leading virtual dialogues, fostering meaningful connection and understanding in diverse settings.
Anne is a strong advocate for deep listening and collaboration, believing in their power to drive positive change and help individuals and communities move forward with clarity and mutual respect.
Role of Ombuds in Conflict Resolution, with Natalie Fleury
Ombuds provide a wide range of services, including conflict management, coaching, mediation, training, reporting, investigation, etc. Learn about the different models of ombuds, standards of practice governing the role, and emerging sectors of ombuds practice.
Natalie C. Fleury Bio:
Natalie C. Fleury, JD has been an Ombuds at the Medical College of Wisconsin since 2015. From 2007-2022, she was the Program Coordinator for Dispute Resolution and Adjunct Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, teaching the Small Claims Mediation Clinic from 2012-2022. She started her career in dispute resolution as a compliance manager with an ADR organization providing warranty arbitration services for Ford Motor Company and Daimler Chrysler.
Ms. Fleury is the Chair of the ABA DR Section Ombuds Committee Legislative Action Task Force and has held numerous leadership roles with the State Bar of Wisconsin. She is a member of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section and a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution Wisconsin Chapter. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School and holds a Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution from Marquette University.
Her areas of interest include legislation related to dispute resolution processes, dispute systems design, and the application of circle processes and restorative justice concepts to organizational ombuds work.
The Future of Mediation and the Frontiers of Conflict Resolution: Toward an Evolving Mediation Model, with Kenneth Cloke:
We create our own future, but not entirely as we choose. . In this sense, we can describe the future of mediation as mediated or negotiated, in part by our vision, values, attitudes, intentions, and actions; and in part by the natural and historical conditions in which we live, imagine, and act. For these reasons, it is impossible to bring about a future for which the preconditions have yet to appear; nor can we imagine a future for mediation until we have practiced and experienced it over an extended period of time, and encountered its inherent limits.
Conflicts mark frontiers, the places where we weaken and divide. Yet these same frontiers contain the forces that strengthen us, bring us together, transform us, and dissipate our differences. Conflicts probe our innermost natures, and the outermost limits of our being. They provoke cruelty and compassion, competition and collaboration, revenge and reconciliation. Mediation is the dangerous magic that moves us from one to the other.
This session will consider the evolving possibilities and limitations of mediation; the internal and external frontiers of conflict resolution; the relational spaces where things fall apart and come together miraculously. It will include a consideration of political conflicts, conflict resolution systems design, the politics of ethics and the ethics of politics, conflict as a heart-based and “spiritual” crisis, and the need for a wide-ranging “conflict revolution.”
Kenneth Cloke Bio:
Ken Cloke is a world-recognized mediator, dialogue facilitator, conflict resolution systems designer, teacher, trainer, author and public speaker. He has been a pioneer and leader in the field of mediation and conflict resolution for the last 37 years. He is co-founder of Mediators Beyond Borders, based in Washington D.C. The organization supports individuals, organizations, communities and governments around the world in building conflict resolution capacity and conflict literacy, focusing on under-served communities.
He has done international work in conflict resolution in over 25 countries, including Armenia, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Denmark, England, Georgia, India, Ireland, Japan, Latin America, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Thailand, Ukraine, the former USSR, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe. As Director of the Center for Dispute Resolution, Kenneth Cloke works as a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, coach, consultant and trainer, specializing in resolving complex multi-party conflicts which include: community issues, grievance and workplace disputes, collective bargaining negotiations, organizational and school conflicts, sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits, environmental and public policy disputes. Ken also provides services in designing preventative conflict resolution systems for couples, families, groups and organizations.
Ken is the author of numerous books about mediation, organizational issues, and conflict resolution. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Law, Strauss Institute. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Southern Methodist University, Saybrook University, and the University of Southern California. He has been an Adjunct Professor at Harvard University School of Law’s Program on Negotiation, Insight Initiative; Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Cape Cod Institute; Massey University (New Zealand); and the University of Amsterdam’s ADR Institute, among others. His teaching experience in higher education includes law, mediation, history, political science, conflict studies, urban studies, and other social sciences at a number of law schools, colleges and universities, including the University of Southern California, U.C.L.A., Southwestern University School of Law, Antioch University, Occidental College, California State University Dominguez Hills, and El Camino College, among others.
He has been an Arbitrator and Mediator for nearly forty years in labor management disputes, and is a member of a number of arbitration panels. He has also served as an Administrative Law Judge for the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board and the Public Employment Relations Board; as a Factfinder for the Public Employment Relations Board; and as a Judge Pro Tem for the Superior Court of Los Angeles. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley; a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley’s Boalt Law School; a Ph.D. from U.C.L.A.; and a LLM from U.C.L.A. Law School.
***If you are having any trouble registering, email [email protected]***